Virtual Reality

Chapter Four

"I wonder how much longer we'll have to wait?" Kagome mused out loud, sitting down outside the temple beside Inuyasha. She tugged lightly on her new red hamaka pants and white shirt. After her battle with Yura, she had bought another outfit, although miko clothing had been a little hard to find in Delphi. The area had more places to buy priest clothing than anything.

It had been a week since they had submitted their question, and they both felt that it was time for them to receive their answer. Even though Kagome had refused Miroku's help, they understood that they should have had a response from the Oracle at the end of the seventh day. She couldn't think of a single reason why everything was taking so long; however, Inuyasha could.

The hanyou shrugged. "I don't know, but I bet the stupid Elves have something to do with the delay," he grumbled. He was tired of waiting, tired of just sitting around, especially since his vision was perfect again. The first few days of relaxation with his slightly poor eyesight had been nice, but he wanted something to do. The only thing he had done for the past week was wander around Delphi and talk to Kagome, making sure she kept her distance from Miroku. He finally considered the miko a close friend, especially since she seemed to understand him so well. She knew his likes and dislikes, his pet peeves, and a few other things about him that kept her from pressing his buttons constantly.

"Have you already sent them an email?" she inquired, looking up at the sky as it slowly changed from bright blue to red and orange. The sun was setting, bringing another day to a close, and they were still waiting.

He nodded. "Yeah, and they haven't sent me anything back yet, the lazy bums," he responded gruffly.

Kagome giggled softly, amused by his comment. "I'm sure they're not as lazy as you think. You never know, maybe they're dealing with more emails and problems than we could ever imagine." She smiled at him, the expression kind. "But if we want to know about the condition of our question, we could probably just ask Miroku. He might tell us something."

"No," Inuyasha stated immediately, fully against the idea of giving the priest another chance to hit on the girl. "We'll just wait."

The miko blinked. "Could we ask Shippou then? He could probably find out," she suggested. The fox demon had been appearing and disappearing over the past week, which had annoyed the hanyou. The little redheaded boy had entertained her and tormented the dog demon with illusions galore, and the strangest thing was that he was an actual player. Most little kids were AIs, but Shippou lived in the real world. What he was doing in the game, she didn't know. She wanted to find out though. Ancient Worlds wasn't exactly a child's game.

The inu hanyou frowned thoughtfully, actually considering the question. The fox demon was annoying, but he could probably prove to be helpful. Also, he was much better than the perverted priest when it came to being around Kagome. "Alright. The next time we see him, we'll ask."

"Thank you," Kagome replied sweetly, yawning. "I wonder if he's still on, or if he's already logged off."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Don't know, but Shippou's probably gone by now. He's so little that-" He was promptly cut off by a young voice.

"Hey! Who you callin' little?!" Shippou protested, landing on top of the hanyou's head. He tugged on the inu youkai's ears, frowning slightly. "I'm not little."

"What do you think your doing?" the hanyou demanded, grabbing the fox demon by the tail and pulling him off of his head.

"Put me down. Put me down!" the redhead shouted, trying to punch his captor.

Kagome sighed. "Be nice, Inuyasha," she gently ordered, taking the fox demon out of her ally's hands. "He's just a kid."

"Yeah!" Shippou nodded his head affirmatively, smiling mischievously at the other male. "Be nice!"

Inuyasha crossed his arms and turned his head to the side. "Feh. You're not worth my time."

The fox demon was going to shout some kind of retort when Kagome stopped him. "Shippou, what are you doing here?"

Green eyes stared into brown ones. "Oh yeah! The Oracle gave her answer, so you can go on in anytime and get it."

Standing up, the hanyou looked down at his friend and ally. "C'mon. We'd better get it before the ugly old crone decides to not let us have it," he stated, taking a few steps into the temple.

"You shouldn't talk that way about people," the miko advised, jogging to catch up with him, Shippou still in her arms. "It isn't nice."

"So?" Inuyasha retorted simply. He didn't see what the big deal was, especially since the Oracle was only an AI. It wasn't like some stupid game-created AI cared about what people called her.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "So you shouldn't be rude to people," she informed him.

"Yeah!" Shippou added smartly, nodding his head to emphasize his point. He didn't care what the two were arguing about, but he wanted to side with Kagome. He knew that she was most likely right.

"Great. Now they're ganging up on me," the inu hanyou grumbled to himself, glaring at the fox demon. "I don't suppose you could tell us where in this temple we're supposed to pick up our answer?"

"Duh. Of course I know," the redheaded boy shot back. "Follow me!" He jumped out of Kagome's arms and raced off. The other two chased after him, quickly finding themselves in a small room. A scroll with their names on it sat in the corner. Shippou brought it to them.

"Thank you," Kagome said gratefully, accepting the scroll from him. An expression of concentration on her face, she read the words written on the paper in her hands. When she finished, she shook her head and handed it to Inuyasha. "I don't believe it."

"What?" the hanyou asked, frowning. What in the world didn't she believe? Was the Shikon no Tama out in space or something?

His curiosity aroused, he read the scroll. Once he finished reading it, he read through it three more times, not sure if he wanted to believe what was written.

Shippou jumped up on Inuyasha's shoulder to see what was going on. "What does it say?" he wanted to know, green eyes staring at the paper.

"Read it for yourself." Inuyasha handed the scroll to the child, scowling. "We just got royally screwed over."

"The treasure you seek is hidden in another land. To find out which one, seek out the ruler of a desert world where a lion with a human head guards a plateau," the fox demon read out loud. "Lion with a human head? Where'd the Oracle come up with that?"

The hanyou sighed. "It's a sphinx," he informed the redheaded boy. "A lion with a human head is called a sphinx. They're supposed to give travelers a riddle. If the traveler answers correctly, then he gets to live. If he doesn't, then he dies."

Shippou made a face. "That doesn't sound nice."

"A desert world with a sphinx means we're going to Egypt," Kagome said with a sigh. "More traveling."

Inuyasha rubbed his eyes. "We'll deal with it in the morning."

"Okay." The miko nodded her head in agreement, unwilling to argue with him. "Goodnight then, Inuyasha."

"See you at seven," he replied, smiling slightly at her right before he logged off. As soon as the hanyou was gone, Kagome patted Shippou on the head. "Thanks for everything." Then, she logged off as well and went to bed.


Promptly at seven in the morning, both Kagome and Inuyasha were back in the game, ready to head out. The hanyou stretched a little as the miko attempted to fully wake up; however, she failed, finding herself sitting on the ground and yawning instead of partaking in the stretching exercises the demon was going through.

"Any idea on how to get to Egypt?" Kagome inquired, leaning back against one the pillars of the temple.

He nodded his head, sitting down next to her. "The easiest way is to go north to Norway and then go southeast to Egypt. Last time I checked, there was no bridge connecting Greece and Egypt," he replied, fingering the hilt of his sword. "And I don't like Norway."

"Why not?" she wanted to know. He had never mentioned hating Norway before, so she was curious as to what had soured him to that world.

"First off, it's cold there year round for some strange reason," Inuyasha told her. "And secondly, there's monsters there that I don't like dealing with. They have frost giants, dwarves, and elves, and I really don't like dealing with all of them. They make traveling through Norway slow and painful."

"There's probably a glitch in the programming," Kagome commented. "I'll e-mail the Elven Council about it later."

"You do that," he responded. "But for right now, we need to get going." He moved until he was kneeling down in front of the raven-haired miko. "Get on."

She nodded and did as he said, finding the action familiar to her. It seemed perfectly natural for her to climb onto his back, and she didn't mind that at all. In fact, she was rather pleased by it.

As soon as the female was settled, Inuyasha took off, running at top speed. He wanted to get to Egypt as quickly as possible, especially since they had wasted so much time in Delphi. Making up for lost time sounded like a good idea to him, so he hurried.

Before he had even traveled a mile, Kagome was dead asleep. It was easy to tell when she drifted off into dreamland because her hold on him relaxed, which Inuyasha reacted to by making sure he had a good grip on her. After all, he didn't want to drop her or let her fall off of his back was he was running at top speed.


By the time Inuyasha reached the connecting bridge, Kagome had woken up. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and glanced around at her surroundings. They were at the edge of a rich, green forest, the sounds of many different animals floating through the air. She could smell flowers as well as see them, their brightly colored petals brightening up the green areas; however, the thing that attracted her attention the most was a rainbow bridge right in front of her. It was huge, about forty feet wide as well as so long she couldn't see the other end of it, and it shone with all the colors of the rainbow. Actually, it almost glowed.

"Isn't that Bifrost Bridge?" the miko inquired as Inuyasha set her down. She wasn't sure if she was right or not, but the bridge appeared to be the one out of Norse mythology.

"Yeah," he replied, his hand going to the hilt of his sword. "It connects Greece to Norway." He smelled demons, but he couldn't tell how many there were or how far away there were. They didn't smell nice though, so he was preparing for battle. The scent of virtual blood was never a good sign.

"Why? Isn't it supposed to connect the land of the frost giants to midgard?" Kagome asked, sounding curious. She had yet to notice his wary actions.

"In mythology? Yes. Here? No." Inuyasha drew his sword, eyes darting around. "Demons are coming, four of them."

Kagome's brown eyes widened a little. "How strong are they?" she asked, sounding a little worried. She didn't like fighting demons. Her magic had so little effect on them that she would have rather fought against a hundred hurroks and wyverns before battling against even one demon.

"I don't know!" he snapped, growling for a moment at her. "You're the miko! Not me!"

"Oh," she replied sheepishly.

Suddenly, two demons came out of the forest while two more flew down from the sky. The two that came out of the forest had long hair and cold eyes. One was much smaller than the other, reminding Kagome of a praying mantis without legs. He flew through the air alongside the other long-haired demon, who appeared to be normal sized and dressed in a kimono shirt and hamaka pants.

The two demons in the sky circled around. One was bald (well, almost bald. He had a little hair) and rather ugly, resembling a pale yellowish frog when it came to his facial features. He was dressed in Japanese-style clothes and sitting on a cloud. The other had long black hair in a braid and evil eyes. He wasn't too bad looking, but Kagome had to admit that Inuyasha was much more handsome. The second flying demon used small flaming wheels by his feet to fly, although how they worked, she didn't know and couldn't figure out.

"I hate mikos and hanyous, don't you, brother Hiten?" the demon on the cloud inquired.

The demon with the black braid smirked. "Yes, Manten, I do."

"Then perhaps they should die!" the small praying mantis demon stated, launching at Kagome and Inuyasha. At the same time, the other nameless demon attacked.

Kagome and Inuyasha busied themselves dodging the quick attacks that the two demons were sending their way, almost completely forgetting about the two demons overhead. Since neither had attacked yet, they weren't quite a threat; however, Hiten and Manten planned on changing that.

They both flew down, Manten jumping off of his cloud and blasting Inuyasha with lighting as Hiten went after Kagome. She ducked, letting the black-haired demon sail overhead, totally missing her; however, Inuyasha wasn't as lucky. While trying to dodge the two nameless demons, he ended up getting hit with the lightning. The attack stung, but the hanyou felt that it definitely could have been worse. He had been hit with stronger attacks, much stronger attacks.

"I suggest you try something else!" Inuyasha shouted, swinging his sword at Manten. The demon tried to dodge and almost succeeded; however, he wasn't quite fast enough. The inu hanyou ended up cutting off his arm.

Howling in pain, Manten fired more lightning blasts out of his mouth at the dog demon. Inuyasha nimbly dodged every one of them, but he had more trouble when Hiten joined in with his lighting spear. The lightning attacks from the two were rather weak, so if he was hit, it wasn't a too big of deal.

Kagome fired arrow after arrow at the two other demons, who she had found out from them were named Kageroumaru and Juuroumaru. They were also brothers that worked as a tag team... an incredibly good tag team. While the miko dealt with one, the other would attack, and as soon as her attention shifted, the first demon would strike her.

"Hold still," she ordered them, trying to hit them with her arrows. They were so fast that she just couldn't seem to send even one shaft into them, and it didn't help that Inuyasha was occupied with the other two demons, Hiten and Manten. 'Please let Inuyasha be strong enough to finish them all off,' she silently pleaded. 'Please, please, please.'

Inuyasha struck out at Hiten with his sword, but the black-haired demon dodged by flying up into the air. Manten and the other sent off a series of lightning attacks, all of which the hanyou dodged; however, someone else did not.

A female scream filled the air, causing Inuyasha to panic. Kagome had been hurt, which meant that he had not been doing his job of protecting her. He turned to rush to her side, but Hiten and Manten stopped him.

"Where do you think you're going?" Hiten wanted to know, throwing another lightning bolt at the inu youkai. "We're not done with you yet."

"But I'm done with you!" Inuyasha retorted. "Kaze no Kizu!" With a burst of power, both Hiten and Manten disappeared, becoming nothing but specks of dust.

Then, since they were gone, Inuyasha raced to help Kagome. He found her dealing with the smaller, praying mantis demon. The other demon had been hit by one of the lightning bolts that hadn't been aimed well, and so he was now dead. The miko had been partially hit by a lightning attack, one of her ankles looking like it was in pretty bad shape. Because of her injury, she was sitting on the ground, dodging the last demon as best as she could and fire arrows at him at the same time.

Growling, Inuyasha swung his sword once at the last demon, cutting him in half. The idiot hadn't been paying enough attention to his surroundings, which had obviously led to his death. Of course, the hanyou didn't feel bad at all about all the deaths he had just caused. They had attacked him first and tried to kill Kagome.

"How bad is your ankle?" he asked the female, kneeling down to get a better look at the wounded area.

She winced. "I can't walk on it, that's for sure. It should heal in time though, and I have some plants with me that should help," she answered, trying to smile at him.

"Good," the silver-haired male replied. "Use them, and I'll carry you until you can walk again."

Kagome reached over and hugged him. "Thank you, Inuyasha, for saving me and being such a big help," she said gratefully, releasing him just in time to see his bright red blush. For a brief moment, he was the same color as his outfit.

"No problem," Inuyasha responded, getting up to gather her arrows. "But hurry up, okay? I want to get going soon."

"Okay." Smiling, the miko pulled the plants she needed out of her pant's pockets and applied them to her ankle, sighing in relief when some of the pain left her. 'Thank you, Kaede, for teaching me about herbs. I'll never forget you for that.'

As soon as Kagome declared she was done, Inuyasha dumped her arrows into the quiver, helped her onto his back, and took off across Bifrost Bridge.


Kagome and Inuyasha found their way to Norway while it was in the middle of a snowstorm. The wind and heavy snowflakes almost blinded the both of them and made the going difficult. Plus, the snow was deep--almost two feet. Luckily, he didn't mind the cold too much, but Kagome was different. He could feel her shiver violently as she clung tightly to him, obviously trying to use him as a heat source.

"Cooooold," the miko whispered softly, her teeth beginning to chatter. She liked snow well enough, as long as she was dressed properly. Unfortunately for her, she was only in thin red pants and a white long-sleeved shirt, neither of which provided much protection from the cold weather. Thus, she wanted out of the cold.

"I'll get us to a village and inside as soon as I can," he promised. "We'll just have to wait out this storm."

"Okay," Kagome replied, shivering violently. Suddenly, she sensed something not too far off in the distance. It was the forbidding feeling which meant danger to her. "Inuyasha... something's up ahead of us, and I don't think it's nice."

"Great. Is there only one?" the hanyou inquired.

She shook her head slightly, her nose practically buried in his hair. "No. There's three."

Inuyasha looked around, but he couldn't see anything through all the falling snow. "How far away are they?"

"Not too far away," Kagome answered. "They're about ten feet... five feet..." She paused, looking up. "We're right below them."

She shrieked when the monstrous AIs came into view. They were gigantic black spiders with humans heads. Spidrens, they were called, and not quite as rare as the wyverns and hurroks had been. They shot poisonous webs out at their enemies and ate anything and everything that was alive and moving. Unfortunately for the travelers, they especially liked to eat humans and demons.

Without thinking, she fired a few arrows at the monsters, hitting one and killing it instantly. Inuyasha struck out at one with his sword, but the spidren was not damaged in the least. He almost couldn't believe it. Never before had his sword had absolutely no effect on a creature before. It was almost amazing. Well, it would have been amazing if he hadn't hated that fact so much.

Growling, the hanyou tried another approach. "Kaze no Kizu!" The power bounced right off of the two AI's, heading right back at him and Kagome. He dodged his own deflected attack, not liking the way things were going. 'I could use Bakuryuuha, but I can't chance it coming back at me. I probably won't be able to dodge it, and I can't risk Kagome's life like that. I'll just have to let her deal with them.'

One spidren fired some pinkish colored web out of its spinnerets at them, but Inuyasha jumped out of the way. "Kagome, they're all yours," he informed her, sheathing his sword. He didn't need it anymore. It was only a hindrance at the moment. "Fire away." He wanted to stay still while she fired, but he couldn't. The spidrens kept firing their webbing at him, forcing him to dodge; however, the miko adapted.

Using her brain, Kagome adjusted to the hanyou's movements and fired a few arrows. Some missed, but the majority hit their targets. Within seconds, the other two spidrens were dead.

"Well, that wasn't so bad, I guess," she commented, burying her face in the crook of the dog demon's neck. She was so cold, even after the battle and the adrenaline rush.

Inuyasha nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah. Now, time to get to town. I think it's somewhere near here," he replied, trying to figure out where the village was. He didn't even know where he was, much less where the village was in relation to him. He wanted to get the girl somewhere that was inside though, so he kept trudging on, praying that he would find someplace to hide out in until the storm passed. Unfortunately, he couldn't find the village and the storm only became worse.

He sneezed once, squinting against the chilly wind and snowflakes that kept hitting his face. His bare feet felt frozen, but his arms, legs, and back felt just fine. He was starting to think that his sword was probably beginning to freeze in its sheath.

After about fifteen minutes, he found the town, and he quickly took Kagome into an inn, setting her down in one of the chairs near the bar. The inn was rather cozy, with wood tables and chairs littering the main room. A single man worked behind the bar, preparing drinks, while another man went to different tables and delivered drinks to people. The room was lit by candles and torches, so it wasn't incredibly bright, but it was warm, which was what mattered.

"This place seems nice enough," Kagome commented as Inuyasha sat down next to her. She was happy to be in a warm place, so she couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, I guess so," the inu hanyou responded, tapping his claws on the tabletop. He was bored already, which wasn't a good thing. "It's warm, which is what I was going for."

"What's wrong?" she inquired. "You sound a little... annoyed."

Inuyasha growled softly. "We keep running into all these demons and monsters," he said gruffly. "It almost seems like someone's trying to stop us or something."

"Are you sure?" Kagome wanted to know, carefully watching his face.

"Yeah. First, we run into the hurroks, then Yura, then the wyverns, then the four demons, and then the spidrens." He ticked off each group on his fingers. "I think it's possible that someone in power is trying to stop us from completely your quest."

The miko considered that idea for a few moments. It certainly had some merit, especially when she considered how new she was and how hard her quest was. Sure, she had an incredibly long time limit, but that was overshadowed by everything else. "You might be right," she replied after a while. "But who in power would be trying to stop us? And why?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "I don't have a clue why, but I have an idea about the who." He scowled. "I bet the stupid Elves are the cause of all this. After my quest with the short time limit and your quest that you received after only month, I wouldn't be surprised if they had some reason to keep the both of us from completing your quest."

"But they gave me the quest. Why would they want to stop me?" Kagome inquired, frowning. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe they have a bet going between themselves," Inuyasha suggested. "Maybe they have another reason. I certainly don't know, and I don't care what their reason is. I'm still gonna kick their butts if they're doing all this to us on purpose."

Cheering suddenly went up around the inn. The storm had finally ended, so many of the people who had been holed up in the inn, just like Kagome and Inuyasha, were thankfully able to leave. Over half of the people in the room stood up and walked out the door.

The miko turned to her friend and ally. "Shall we go too?" she asked, curious. She wasn't sure whether or not Inuyasha would want to stick around the inn for a while so her ankle could heal up some more. Her gut instinct told her that he would want to leave, and she went with that.

Inuyasha nodded his head, golden eyes looking a little happier. "Yeah. Let's hit the road again. We need to go south-east for at least a few hours, and we don't have a lot of time to waste."

Kagome got onto his back again, her arms going around his neck, his arms hooking under her legs to support her weight a little better. Then, he was off.


Sometime after lunch, Kagome and Inuyasha came across the giant hole in the ground that was supposed to be the connecting bridge between Norway and Egypt. The area around it was bleak, flat, and boring, which made both travelers think that they had found the wrong hole.

"Ummm... Should we at least try it?" the miko suggested. "If we're wrong, I guess we could always jump back out. You are strong enough to do that, right?"

"Probably," he answered. "And I guess it couldn't hurt to try." Frowning thoughtfully, he tried to judge just how far down the bottom probably was, but due to the fact that he couldn't see the bottom, he had trouble guessing.

"Well, let's go." Kagome sounded sure of herself, but she had her fingers crossed as she prayed to the Norse gods, mainly Odin, that they had found the correct hole and that they would end up in Egypt after jumping in.

After taking a deep breath and making sure that he had a good grip on Kagome, he leapt into the black hole.


The woman with dark hair and skin grinned. "Well, they seem to be coming along quite nicely. I wonder how long it'll take them to figure out exactly what's going on?"

The blond shrugged, her blue eyes dancing with curiosity. "I don't know. Maybe a month."

"I don't think they'll figure it out," the pale-skinned female replied. "After all, I don't believe they know all that much about us, do they?"

The first woman shook her head, and evil smile on her face. "Nope. They don't."




CotA: Well, I finally know who those three women are, and all I had to do for Sess-chan is promise to finish Tourniquet... with a lemon somewhere in there. *shrugs* It's not so bad, and I can most certainly deal with that. I mean, how hard could it be? Besides, if I get stuck, I can always as Sess-chan for help. *grins*

Sess-chan: And she seems so proud of that fact, too.

CotA: Of course. Why wouldn't I be?

Sess-chan: I would rather not go into it. So, I'll just say that the review responses are below and make you work on Tourniquet.

Inu009: I'm trying to work in the fluff, but it's a little hard. Inuyasha and Kagome just met, so it'll take a little time for them to warm up to each other. Just be patient. And you'll meet Sango later.

Lady Icykimi: Kikyou already was added. She was the shop keeper that gave Kagome those nice little pieces of advice. And as for the Shikon no Tama... most people just don't know about it. It's one of those arcane things that people tend to ignore because it's not supposed to exist.

Inu-chan 613: Sango will come in soon, but I'm not sure about Kouga. I'm still trying to work him in. And sorry. There'll be no rosary in this. Inuyasha doesn't need it.

kumiko-chan:*giggles* I had a feeling you weren't asking for a lemon. And to answer your question... no, there won't be any Sango/Miroku fluff. They're not even going to meet in this story. That's reserved for the sequel. ^_^ And I'll see if I can check out your story sometime. I can't promise anything though, because my internet time is limited.

Yanou: Yes, I am evil. *smiles* And why would Miroku ever give up? I mean, c'mon! *laughs* He's determined, stubborn, whatever you wanna call it.

Purple Witchy Angel: Ahhh... I'm sorry. It must have stunk to have a boring birthday, but at least you got money!

Elen Liste Alda: I'm glad you like it. I'm working very hard on this story.

Kittymui: I will reveal who they are eventually, and thanks for reviewing.

Eruinichil: I'm surprised that he didn't glomp her too, but I guess he's matured a little bit.

drake220: Um... who? I'm not sure who you're talking about, so you can safely assume that the three women weren't modeled after them. And I don't know why Kagome didn't slap Miroku. I guess she never really did come out of shock.

Kim: I'm so glad you think I update fast enough. I do try hard.

silentslayer: Hmmm... I guess he is becoming a little more possessive. Good. I was hoping that would happen.

Sakura onto Hitomi: You are a fabulous authoress! I love your stories so much. And thanks for catching that error. I'll go fix that ASAP. *hugs Sakura-chan* I can't believe I missed that stupid mistake.

Demongirl6381: I will update as soon as I can. Promise.

Knight Star: Um... I do have the whole story pretty much planned out. This story is going to have ten chapters plus an epilogue. And it depends on the author whether or not it's better to plan out a story from the start. I've found that it's better for me to have a guideline to go by. I need to have a little flexibility when writing so I can still be a little spontaneous.

dEMONsTARFire387: I will update as soon as I can. *sighs* It's amazing how many people tell me to update soon.

Lady Rose Jade: Cool. I can't wait to see what idea you impliment.